Confessions cover art

Confessions

A Life of Failed Promises

 Preview
LIMITED TIME OFFER

3 Months Free

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Get this deal
Offer ends on 15 July 2026 at 11:59 BST.
More purchase options

Confessions

By: A. N. Wilson
Narrated by: A. N. Wilson
Get this deal

£5.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.

Buy Now for £14.32

Buy Now for £14.32

Bloomsbury presents Confessions written and read by A. N. Wilson.

Known for his journalism, biographies and novels, A. N. Wilson turns a merciless searchlight on his own early life, his experience of sexual abuse, his catastrophic mistakes in love (sacred and profane) and his life in Grub Street – as a prolific writer.

Before he came to London, as one of the “Best of Young British” novelists, and Literary Editor of the Spectator, we meet another A. N. Wilson. We meet his father, the Managing Director of Wedgwood, the grotesque teachers at his first boarding school, and the dons of Oxford – one of whom, at the age of just 20, he married, Katherine Duncan-Jones, the renowned Shakespearean scholar.

The book begins with his heart-torn present-day visits to Katherine, now for decades his ex-wife, who has slithered into the torments of dementia.

At every turn of this reminiscence, Wilson is baffled by his earlier self – whether he is flirting with unsuitable lovers or with the idea of the priesthood. His chapter on the High Camp seminary which he attended in Oxford is among the funniest in the book.

We follow his unsuccessful attempts to become an academic, his aspirations to be a Man of Letters, and his eventual encounters with the famous, including some memorable meetings with royalty.

The princesses, dons, paedophiles and journos who cross the pages are as sharply drawn as figures in Wilson’s early comic fiction. But there is also a tenderness here, in his evocation of those whom he has loved, and hurt, the most.©2022 A. N. Wilson (P)2022 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Art & Literature Authors Royalty Funny Witty Heartfelt
adbl_web_anon_alc_button_suppression_t1

Critic reviews

When you combine the deepest learning and the highest readability with the most plumptious story-telling, the result is A. N. Wilson. (Stephen Fry)
A. N. Wilson is the most enjoyably readable writer I know. (Antonia Fraser)
A. N. Wilson is the supreme man of letters. He has conquered every field: journalism, novels, biography, history – and now memoir. He is planet-brained and very funny – a vanishingly rare combination. (Harry Mount)
I am stunned, as I always am, by Wilson's humanity and brilliance and hard honesty. (Deirdre McCloskey)
Distinguished literary figure A. N. Wilson's exquisite memoir tells the story of the wife he fell for as a student then betrayed - and the lifetime of lust and longing that led to a deeply poignant ending.
A. N. Wilson has written many brilliant biographies and novels but never a memoir - until now. It was worth the wait. So exhilarating. And definitely not a failed promise.
Wilson is a torrentially readable autobiographer, capable of howlingly funny paragraphs, desperately sad scenes, gay slapstick, literary analysis and gossipy name-dropping in the same chapter. (John Walsh)
…an arresting, honest, memorable book, never naïve or sloppy­, tender and forgiving towards those who have hurt Wilson, contemptuous and merciless about his own cowardice, vanity and failings.
Descriptions of life as a theological student have the mischievous, observant wit of an accomplished humourist.
…in this fascinating, searingly honest memoir [Wilson] tells more of his own life story. (Jacqueline Wilson, bestselling children's author)
Deliciously delicate barbs are scattered throughout the pages.
A. N. Wilson is the greatest living man of letters…He is proficient equally as a biographer, novelist, historian, essayist, editor and literary journalist. His every utterance is well worth pondering…
A. N. Wilson is nothing short of a genius, a searing journalist, a prolific biographer, a historian and a novelist. There will be no finer book this year. (Rory Knight Bruce)
All these accounts are fascinating, rendered with both melancholy and self-deprecating humor.
Confessions reveals a dexterous storyteller… Mr. Wilson himself turned to writing, writing, writing—as if his earnest output might one day assuage “the wistful sense with which I began to write this book, that I have never been completely sure who A.N. Wilson was.” We aren’t sure, either, but it has been an interesting ride.
Wilson’s yarn has much to recommend… A readable, often entertaining summation of a life of hard work and second thoughts.
...a poignant saga …laugh out loud, hilarious... a compelling read.. replete with acerbic humor.
Scholarly, prolific and compulsively readable … it is impossible to resist Wilson’s storytelling… From its very first pages, Confessions promises to be terrifically entertaining, and it doesn’t fail in the slightest.
All stars
Most relevant
And the book is peppered with scurrilous stories that are thrilling to read and very thought-provoking!
I did not want this book to end and that fact that Wilson is a contemporary gave his tales, experiences and insights an extra edge! Thank you!

Entertaining and educative at the outset

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Beautifully written, and a privilege that it is read by the author. Couldn’t put it down !

Insightful, powerful autobiographical work

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Having read several biographies written by A.N. Wilson, I was very much looking forward to his personal biography. It didn’t disappoint. A.N. Wilson told his story with grace and gravitas though I do wish this infinitely interesting man would’ve scratched more of the surface that’s his life. Highly recommended.

Gracefully told

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
This is a very curious book. Fascinating for the light it throws upon Wilson's milieu and upon his own complex personality, self-preoccupied and self-critical in equal measure. He paints a vivid, scathing picture of bourgeois preoccupations, prejudices and blindspots of which he is both shrewd observer and victim. Wilson can't help himself. He is a compulsive snob and name-dropper, like his parents, obsessed by the gradations of the class system and the fickle favours of fashion and fame. Never more engaging than when he's castigating the shallow kind of celebrities he mixes with, competes with and has become. Like his father, he is convinced he's far more interesting and significant than he is. Writing the book has been partly an act of atonement, partly his latest exercise in self-promotion. it's good that we have the book in his own voice. I wonder if the sequel be as self-revealing?

An attendant lord... A sort of literary Rees-Mogg.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
AN Wilson is really clever
A real scholar- learnt Russian and German as an adult
Very honest and sad description of a very intellectual man who made some big mistakes as a young man

Brilliant book- by brilliant writer

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews